Relationships - Children & Family: November 8, 2011

NOVEMBER 8 2011. TODAYS WORD FOR TUESDAY NOVEMBER 8, 2011

RELATIONSHIPS: CHILDREN AND FAMILY

DEFINITION:

A blood or marriage connection; a connection between parent and child.

SCRIPTURE:

Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Ephesians 6:1

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Our greatest priority raising our six children was to lead them, by example, to a personal RELATIONSHIP with God through Jesus Christ. We constantly attempted to direct them into the right activities and associations that would help them grow in their RELATIONSHIP with Jesus.

Even though they were born into a Christian home we taught them that that did not make them a Christian. Even though we took them weekly to Sunday school, church, Christian activities and enrolled them in a Christian school, we taught them that that did not make them a Christian.

One by one each child, in God’s perfect timing, accepted Jesus as their Savior and began that most important RELATIONSHIP with God in their individual lives.

Our RELATIONSHIP to God is a FAMILY RELATIONSHIP. This family relationship with God requires a daily communication with God our Father. We accomplished this by reading the Bible daily and praying to God daily as individuals and together as a family.

Jesus instructs us how to pray in Matthew 6:9-15 with the prayer known as THE LORD’S PRAYER. Take the time this week to read this. We have several important thoughts that we think will make this prayer more relative for you, your children and your family. These thoughts will help you build your RELATIONSHIP with our Lord.

• It begins with OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN. Jesus is making it clear that we are part of God’s family and that we have a FAMILY RELATIONSHIP with God who is our Father. We are His children
• The words, YOUR WILL BE DONE reminds us that, as God’s children, obedience is required. In order to do the will of God we must be obedient and obedience requires submission to God’s authority over us. We must be willing to submit our will to that of our heavenly Father. Parents have the responsibility to teach their children to be obedient to their authority and to teach them to obey God’s commandments. If we do not keep God’s commandments we are not doing the will of God. God teaches us that children are to obey their parents just as we are to obey our Father in Heaven.
• Then this prayer reads: GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD. As children we rely on our parents to provide our food and as God’s children we rely on God, OUR FATHER, for our spiritual food.
• We are to ask God to FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US. Unsettled disputes between spouses and between parents and children lead to harbored bitterness and then to divisiveness just as unforgiven sin separates us from our Father in heaven
• And finally it reads: AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION BUT DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL ONE. Just as parents want to protect their children from harm from the moment they are born, God wants to protect us, His children, from the wiles of Satan and keep us from sin. Sin harms us and keeps us separated from God. Just as we want to see our children prosper and avoid pitfalls in life, even more so God wants to protect and prosper us, His children, from the sinful world we live in.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in HEBREWS 9:27.

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.

PRAYER:

Help our family to learn more about You as we read together Your Word and communicate to You through prayer. May other families see Christ in us and in our family relationship and may they be drawn to You by what they see in us.